Recipe: Basic Stir Fry Sauce

Over the weekend, I made vegetable pad thai with a creamy tamari and cashew sauce (recipe here). This meant prepping lots of vegetables, including carrots, courgette, cabbage, green beans, broccoli, peppers and tomatoes. I prepped way too much for the two portions of pad thai I was making, so I kept the remainder in the fridge to make a vegetable stir fry for lunch today.

To make the stir fry I needed a stir fry sauce. Many of the stir fry sauces available in supermarkets are very processed and contain sugar so I try to avoid them. I know it's very handy to buy one ready made, but this one takes less than five minutes to make yourself so it really is a case of the homemade version being almost as convenient as the store bought version.

I made this basic stir fry sauce using a food processor. However, if you don't have a food processor, you can whisk the sauce together and it works just as well. It adds real flavour to vegetables so if you are not a big fan of vegetables or even if you are just a little tired of having them on their own, this is a good way to add some flavour and variety.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons of tamari

4 tablespoons of sesame oil

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons of water

2 cloves of garlic

2 inches of ginger

1/4 red chilli, deseeded

Method:

1. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until combined. If you don't have a food processor, mince the garlic and ginger and finely chop the chilli before placing all ingredients in a bowl and whisking well to combine.

To make the stir fry, heat a tablespoon of water in a wok over a medium heat and add the finely chopped vegetables. Toss the vegetables over the heat for about three minutes and then add the stirfry sauce and cook for another five minutes, tossing every so often. Transfer the stir fry vegetables to a bowl and pour the leftover sauce from the wok over the vegetables. Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds over the stir fry and serve.

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